Arabian Horse In History May 2012

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A r a bi a n

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Charles Martel And A Cast of Thousands

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by Linda White

or as long as humankind has communicated by means of language, nicknames have settled on interesting characters, good and evil. Santa Claus, for instance, is the familiar “Old Saint Nick.” A Jewish revolutionary named Judah Maccabee was a controversial agitator and pot-stirrer of the second century B.C.E. With his brothers, Maccabee eventually recaptured Jerusalem from the first of many armies of invaders that would claim it. For his sometimes doubtful, yet larger-than-life efforts, Maccabee was forever after called Judah “The Hammerer.” Even Satan, the ultimate bad guy, was nicknamed the more digestible “Prince of Darkness” by some ancient soothsayer. Such colorful figures, real or mythical, and the events surrounding them, seem to be especially vulnerable to error and misinterpretation.